JSngry

You think those guys actually think in terms of music?

Yeah, but ABBA had good songs. Still, point well taken.

And if so, with what?

Here ya' go, buddy. Take an extra pair, just in case.

Understood.

Hidden? Let's see if this works... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pO-Ken1BROM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pO-Ken1BROM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Nope. No way to embed on the o-board?

Hey, it's a dick in a box. What's not to like? I just hope this doesn't give Lorena Bobbit any fresh ideas...

Exactly.

Well, that group/song/video was from Finland and it was from the early 80s, before everything was so hooked up that its badness would have been immediately apparent, as it would if it were made today. So maybe that's an excuse. But then again...

It's something like this video that makes you appreciate Lawrence Welk...

One wonders...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv39ZnjtG3Y

Longest I've ever had a DG order take is 3.5 weeks. It happens, especially w/the bottom rung shipping options, which I am fond of using.

Didn't we both matriculate there?

Guess I was in the right place at the right time, although then, it seemed anything but. The 64-70 progression from Beatles to Hendirx to Zappa (with R&B playing steadily in the background) made the discovery of jazz at age 14 seem like the next logical step, as did the then presence of the popular "jazz-rock" horm bands. Throw in a school band program led by a club-date player w/a love for the music and a department store that was overflowing w/a seemingly endless supply of dirt-cheap jazz cutouts, and you got what in retrospect seems like destiny, even if it was in on of the most god-forsaken, backass portions on the Newknbighted States of Murrica. So, Danielle, you're 14 now.You've got approximately 10 years to set your course in life before it gets kinda "set" to the point where making meaningful changes starts getting more difficult with each tick of the clock. Don't fuck up, ok?

Exactly.

I was actually thinking that this might be a good time to start the Organissimo Dating Service...

[Many also think I'm crazy for having law degrees and working as a musician... ] Ironically enough, last month I worked two different gigs with two different bassists, both of whom were practicing lawyers. They acted like they didn't need the money...

I think it would've been hipper if Reagan hadn't been so well understood.

Dude, did you know that you're a doctor?

I understood Reagan perfectly well. Did that make him hip?

Didn't mean it to be cryptic. Sorry. But just think about it - notation, theory, composition, those are all "tools" geared towards steering the creative impulse into a certain "means of expression". Doesn't mean it's "bad" or anything. but why do you need theory except as a reference point as to how things are "supposed" to sound? Why do you need notation except as a means to ensure that a certain idea gets reproduced past the moment of inspiration? Why do you need composition except as a means to create an structure of order and then preserve it? (And why preserve it? Plenty of answers to that one, some benign, some not). Again, those are all useful tools. But tools they nevertheless are. And tools are used to build. And where there's building, eventually there's zoning. And when there's zoning, the nature/impulse of the building process can't help but change, especially as the years pass and things get old and crowded. You're not building for the sake/joy of building anymore, you're looking to build something that will pass spec. And damn do those tools come in handy for that! So handy that you can buy hammers and shit at freakin' grocery stores and 7-11s now. It's taken centuries for us to get to this point, but here we are. It's inevitable, and it's nothing to get freaked about, I don't think. As one cycle ends, another begins, and the overlap will probably be a lengthy one, and may never completely disappear. But it's probably time to consider the notion that the old buildings are going to crumble and fall, and that maybe people aren't going to want or need buildings anymore. Or if they do, not the same type buidings with the same functions as the old ones. Sense of place is by no means a fixed quantity, doncha' know, and what are buildings except firm declarations of fixed space? That's probably cryptic too, and again, sorry 'bout that. But think about it anyways, ok?

Perhaps...but I guess the important thing about an interactive, 'real' environment such as the jam session is that one learns the context etc. for learned techniques, whereas in (cyber-)isolation/the isolation of the music college, there's the increased danger of painting by numbers. I'd not count on cyber-isolation staying "isolated" into perpetuity, even though I (and possibly you) may not live long enough to see it become all it can be. Between virtual reality & teleconferencing technologies and the evolutions/progresses/whatevers/etcs. they're bound to make, who knows what can happen? And as for music college, well, GIGO, and all that. Harsh, perhaps, but ultimately true.